I left the fridge on battery only not city feed (240v) so it flattened the leisure overnight, no worries thinks i, it'll charge from the split charge while driving home, anyway the radio or interior lights wouldn't work while driving so i thought it wasn't charging for a few miles but when i checked it had blown the fuse that joins the main battery to the leisure via the relay, why for does it do that? is it some sort of surge 'cos the alternator is throwing too many amps to it? it seems stupid having a split charge that won't charge a flat battery! any way to stop it?
If your leisure battery is completely flat, then the current draw through the split charge is pretty high. That will be what has blown the fuse. Really a split charge is just there to keep it topped up, so if you're chraging from flat you're better off doing it with the ctek.
yep, thought so it's ok now i've had it on charge all night - just hope the battery hasn't suffered from being flattenend totally, i've forgotten the fridge switch a couple of times but it's never done that before so the battery may be showing it's age - it's been on 2 years.
I'll be honest, it's not great to run it completely flat - however leisure batteries are much more resilient to that sort of treatment than standard car batteries. You can kill a starter battery by running it flat a couple of times.
how many amps is the fuse, you've got the alternator and the starter battery pushing current into a flat LB, 30A should be sufficient to deal with the surge, if not try 40A providing your cabling is thick enough.
Whs What fuse have you got and what size battery Its the battery size that will determin the charge rate but a 30amp fuse should be fine
whats a ctek? am looking at *putting in leisure battery set up very soon but not a clue. (*auto sparky)
I use a 70amp relay and wiring to match never have a problem. I have seen people use 30 amp relays on brazillian bays and t4s which isnt enough as their alternators can kick out 50-60 amps to a flat battery.For a little extra cost its worth it and you know the circuit is safe.
A ctek is a make of a mains powered battery charger by using some fancy electronics it will make sure the battery is charged to the max A ctek charger will not how ever charge a fully flat battery as it need some charge in it for the electronics to see that its there inorder to charge it A alternator does not have the fancy electronics so will only manage to charge the battery to 85 to 90% full charge A normal bay alternator is rated at 55amp and with a up to 120amp/hr battery a good quality 30amp relay and fuse set up is fine
cheers, the split charge is just a simple relay, 30a? had 10amp fuses both ends of the wire, (one each battery) so will put 25a fuse in for now, checked c-tek this morn battery is showing 3/4 charged so should be ok, didn't think to put it onto "condition" which is for flat batteries but it seems to have worked on normal, battery is 90a/h
I agree 30 amps should be enough for a bay, but 30 amp relay £4,42 70 amp relay £5,54 no problem charging fully discharged battery no blown fuses
I've found an old screw, or in fact the old fuse wrapped in tin foil stops all fuses blowing* Ah....c'mon now, we are all friends here and know a joke when we see one......
only do this if you have 25amp or bigger wiring if you just stick a bigger fuse in the wiring could melt under fault conditions
To make some good out of a bad. Tell the wife it was her hair straighteners that made it blow, and that on future trips she should leave them at home.
oh yes we could......... we used to take loads. mrs roo likes home comforts when camping it's a constant battle of me removing things and her demanding more goes back in.
